George Town

A duty free paradise

Once disembarked from and MSC cruise ship in the Cayman Islands, the cruise goer is welcomed by the port of George Town.
The capital of the island and of the country, it is a traditional Caribbean city with colourful wooden houses that alternate with newer buildings.

The houses on the narrow George Town streets are interspersed with artisan workshops, where you can find some rarities to take home as a reminder of your MSC cruise in the Caribbean Sea. You can take a plunge into the history of the island at the dual-purpose National Museum of George Town: you can both explore samples of the most interesting endemic flora and fauna, and trace the long and tough inhabited history of the island.

However, if you want to learn about the lives of the first European colonists, an excursion to Bodden Town located five kilometres from the capital is ideal. In this former capital of Cayman Islands, you can visit the Mission House, a building used as a family residence by teachers and missionaries during the 18th century. As an alternative, visit the Queen Elizabeth IIBotanical Park located, in the east of the island. Here, if you are lucky, besides the riot of tropical plants you may also encounter the extremely rare blue iguana.

Lovers of shopping will also find great satisfaction in the Cayman Islands: the entire country is duty free. You just have to choose what interests you the most among the myriad of watches, liqueurs, jewellery and porcelain. There is even a museum of curiosities. Not far from Turtle Farm, sits the Cayman Motor Museum, which exhibits the incredible collection by the Norwegian businessman Andreas Ugland. His “pearls” include the original Batmobile and Batcycle from the Batman TV series, a replica of the 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, considered the first car in the world, and another seventy rare cars and motorcycles.

Discover our excursions

Cayman Islands

A vacation in the Cayman Islands means encountering a triumph of underwater life and stunning seaside locations, starting from Seven Miles Beach, a long crescent-shaped bay, amongst the most popular in the Greater Antilles.

Not seven, as suggested by the name, but five and a half miles of pure Caribbean beach with a choice of bars and restaurants and the opportunity to go snorkeling in its shallow waters. If you wish to indulge in an even more moving marine experience, you should not miss an excursion to Sting Ray City.

Protected by the reef that extends north of Grand Cayman, in fairly shallow waters (between 50 centimetres and two metres) there is a place where you can swim along with these large, friendly rays (with a full wing span of up to two metres), for these splendid and peaceful creatures actually enjoy contact with humans.

And if you’re lucky, you might also see the large moray eel that lives here. If you’re eager to encounter all the aquatic life of the Caribbean, you should visit the Cayman Turtle Farm, at the far north-west end of the island. This is a beautiful marine park where you can swim with the sea turtles and look at the feeding of sharks.